Pride and Punishment

“Pride and Punishment” exhibition departs from the main concepts explored in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The project draws a parallel between the environment of the 19th century Industrial Revolution and its traumatic effects as depicted by the two books, and the existential problems of the 21st century Information Society.  Focusing on different aspects of social life, it explores within a dynamic spatial configuration those human dilemmas about ethics and belongingness that become highly pronounced in times of big civilizational transformations.

In addition to the paintings and drawings by each artist, the exhibition presents a room bringing the artists and the inspirational authors on one single chronological and spatial plane. This room containing various objects and documents that influenced the artists during the exhibition’s preparatory phase and which they chose to bring to the exhibition space, invites the viewers to a participatory experience. This way, “Pride and Punishment” aims at dissolving the boundaries between the artists, the authors and the viewers, and expanding as much as it can the possibilities of capturing that changeless thing in human essence.

Curator: İpek Yeğinsü